Iowa looks to run its winning streak to four games when the Hawkeyes open a two-game road trip in the Pacific Northwest against Oregon in Big Ten action on Sunday night in Eugene, Ore.
Iowa (15-5, 5-4 in Big Ten) is coming off a 73-72 win at home over USC in which Bennett Stirtz and Tavion Banks scored 20 points apiece.
Stirtz has started 116 college games and has scored 20 or more points in 10 games this season. He’s 14 points away from 2,000 for his college career, counting one season at Drake and two seasons at Division II Northwest Missouri State.
Part of the reason for Iowa’s success is continuity in lineups. The Hawkeyes have only used three different starting lineups this season, including the same one 11 times.
Iowa leads the all-time series 6-3. The Hawkeyes’ 15-5 start through 20 games is their best since the 2019-20 season.
Against USC, Iowa started slow, so head coach Ben McCollum made an adjustment in temperament.
I think I had to just go back to my (Division II) days and just go crazy for a while,” McCollum told The Gazette of Cedar Rapids. “And that seemed to work.”
Oregon (8-13, 1-9) is headed toward its worst season in the Dana Altman head coaching era. Altman, who took over the program in 2010, has won 20 or more games in each of his previous 15 seasons with the Ducks. But Oregon is struggling with seven straight losses and without its two top scorers due to injury, Nate Bittle (foot) and Jackson Shelstad (hand).
Oregon has lost its last six games by 10 or more points. To make matters worse, the Ducks played without another injured top scorer, Takai Simpkins (ankle), during Wednesday’s 73-57 loss to UCLA and forward Devon Pryor missed the second half with a groin injury.
All of the absences leave Kwame Evans Jr. as Oregon’s top offensive threat, and Evans had a career-high 24 points in the loss to UCLA.
“Thirty-nine minutes wore him out there, but he did a lot of good things,” Altman said. “Didn’t get much help.”
–Field Level Media
